Militants Kill Five Police in India's Northeast

Suspected militants killed five policemen in an ambush in India's northeast on Tuesday, officials said, a day after separatists from the same group killed seven villagers.

Members of the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) attacked a police vehicle in the northeastern state of Meghalaya as officers were transferring one of their fellow rebels, who is on trial.

"A group of about 30 GNLA militants attacked the police vehicle by first lobbing a grenade and then opening indiscriminate gunfire, killing all the five policemen on the spot," Chinmay Gotmare, a senior district administrator, told AFP by telephone.

Security was beefed up after the attack in South Garo Hills in Meghalaya, where the GNLA has been demanding a separate homeland for the Garo tribe.

Rebels from the GNLA, heavily armed and dressed in army fatigues, gunned down seven villagers and injured nine others Monday in neighboring Assam state.

Northeast India, linked to the rest of the country by a narrow land bridge, has seen decades of unrest among ethnic and separatist groups, although some rebels have started peace talks with the government.